EXCLUSIVE: Just as they prepare for tonight’s Sundance premiere of the Michael Fassbender-starrer Frank, the pic’s backers, Element Pictures, have made a first look deal with Lenny Abrahamson to hatch film and TV projects for the Frank writer/director to script, direct and produce. Frank is their latest collaboration; before that they made Adam & Paul (with Speers Film), Garage and What Richard Did, along with the TV series Prosperity.

Frank is one of the pictures most often mentioned to me by hopeful buyers. The film stars Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scoot McNairy; it’s an offbeat comedy about a band led by an enigmatic genius lead singer who hides himself inside an oversized fake head. The film is an Element Pictures/Runaway Fridge production for Film4, BFI, Protagonist Pictures and the Irish Film Board. Abrahamson and Element are putting together a slate that will include an adaptation of the Emma Donoghue novel Room.

Ed Guiney said he and Element Pictures’ co-director Andrew Lowe “feel very lucky indeed to be working with Lenny, a truly unique, once in a lifetime film making talent whose international reputation is growing rapidly. Our friendship goes back almost 30 years to when we started making films together in college. We now want to formalize what has been a very successful relationship with Element over the last decade and support Lenny in his intention to make ever more impactful and high profile film and television projects. We will do this by allowing him to develop his ambition both as a film maker of his own films as well as a creative collaborator with other talent, a role at which he also excels. We expect this partnership to be a very productive and vibrant source of distinctive and successful new projects for the international marketplace over the coming years.”

Said Abrahamson: “Making films with Ed is the most natural thing in the world for me. We work so well together, with a trust, an ease and a creative understanding that has deepened over the years. I am keenly aware of how unusual a relationship like ours is in the film industry and this deal underscores our intention to preserve and develop it. In Element Pictures, Ed and Andrew have built a company with an international reputation for producing excellent work. I’m proud to make it my home as a film maker and very very excited at the prospect of the work we will produce together.” The filmmaker was repped in the deal by UK-based Casarotto, Ramsay and Associates.

3 Comments

I’m looking forward to Drank. It will be fascinating to see Michael Fassbender’s performance he is a fantastic actor and I can’t wait to see it hopefully at Sundance London.

Davros • on Jan 17, 2014 2:11 pm

Will they also be announcing they have picked up worldwide for their own movie?!!

Davros • on Jan 17, 2014 2:11 pm

What? Is Element giving him a bungalow on the Element studio lot? Are they also going to issue a release announcing they’re buying North America for their own movie? Peculiar story. Just get a room already.